But the little crag stood, like a rock
opposing the flooding tide. The waves of war rolled on and dashed
against impenetrable and immovable granite, and were scattered back in
bloody spray. The fortress commanded the pass, and swept it clean with
an unintermitted storm of shot and balls. For twenty-eight days the
fortress resisted the whole force of the Turkish army, and prevented it
from advancing a mile. This check gave the terrified inhabitants of
Vienna, and of the surrounding region, time to unite for the defense of
the capital. The Protestants and the Catholics having settled their
difficulties by the pacification of Ratisbon, as we have before
narrated, combined all their energies; the pope sent his choicest
troops; all the ardent young men of the German empire, from the ocean to
the Alps, rushed to the banners of the cross, and one hundred and thirty
thousand men, including thirty thousand mounted horsemen, were speedily
gathered within and around the walls of Vienna.
Thus thwarted in his plans, Solyman found himself compelled to retreat
ingloriously, by the same path through which he had advanced. Thus
Christendom was relieved of this terrible menace. Though the Turks were
still in possession of Hungary, the allied troops of the empire
strangely dispersed without attempting to regain the kingdom from their
domination.
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